Fighting For A Fresh Start In Texas

The core of IJ’s economic liberty pillar is the right to earn an honest living without unreasonable government interference. Governments across the country violate that right by requiring licenses to work and then denying those licenses to people with old, irrelevant convictions. IJ’s “fresh start” cases combat those laws and fight for the principle that people should be judged for who they are now, not for who they were many years ago.

Katherin Youniacutt and Tammy Thompson know this all too well. Both women overcame substance addiction over a decade ago and went back to school, earning master’s degrees in social work. They turned their lives around and want to help others do the same.

And Texans need their help. Texas has a dire shortage of social workers to deal with the exploding mental health and substance abuse issues in the state. And people who have overcome substance abuse and other forms of adversity are often the best equipped to help others beat similar challenges.

But Texas won’t let Katherin or Tammy help. Under a 2019 state law, neither woman can obtain a Texas social worker license because each pleaded guilty to a single assault conviction in the 2000s (which did not come with prison time). The state won’t let them work, and nothing—no amount of time, wave of recommendation letters, or sparkling credentials—can change that. The 2019 law is a lifetime licensing ban, and it brushes aside evidence of rehabilitation.

A landmark 2015 IJ win at the Texas Supreme Court confirmed that Texas’ Constitution protects the right to earn an honest living without unreasonable government interference. Banning Katherin and Tammy from working isn’t reasonable—it just deprives Texans of qualified, empathetic social workers.

IJ has successfully defeated a similar law in Pennsylvania and helped restore a substance abuse counselor’s right to work in Virginia, where we’re currently working to strike down another permanent punishment law. 

Texas has shut out Katherin and Tammy because of past mistakes that say nothing about who they are today. That’s why they teamed up with IJ to challenge the licensing ban. They want the opportunity to show the licensing board that they’ve changed, and they have the evidence to prove it.

They’re ready to get to work, and IJ is proud to fight for them.

James Knight is an IJ attorney.